Do you think limited dolls should be rereleased/restocked by their companies?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes, with a corollary. I'm perfectly fine with limited faceups/outfits/wigs/eyes/fantasy parts--after all those are a huge part of what make limited dolls limited in the first place. HOWEVER. I really like the idea of keeping the sculpts themselves non-limited--despite the gripes from some collectors about secondary market price paying and all, I think that it would actually help the companies themselves in the long run. Companies like SOOM might not neccessarily have to deal with such huge loads of orders and have their quality and customer service go down if they put in a system like this. Certain companies (Dollzone and Souldoll come to mind off the top of my head) already sort of have something like this in place--when the outfits or fantasy parts are gone, they're gone, but you can still usually buy the doll blank or with faceup.

Personal opinion, though, and the fact that I don't have any limiteds of my own might be influencing this... haha... ^^;

 

I own limited dolls and I voted No.

I think if a doll is sold by the company as limited ( especially with an accurate number of dolls), this doll should stay limited to this amount.
They can rerelease the doll with other make up, clothes, but not the exact same doll.
In my opinion this is definitely not "fair" for people who bought the doll at the first release and at a higher price because they believed this was really limited and that was their only chance to get one.
I am sorry if the word " fair" is not correct or seem hard for some people. English is not my first langage and I try to do my best. So please NO offense to anyone.
So if the company decide to rerelease the exact same doll, people who buy it first can feel upset.

Now I know some companies do that. Honestly I really thought a limited doll with numbers means only this number of dolls, now and forever. I was wrong.
I don't regret most of my dolls, I love them and that's the most important thing. But now I feel a bit anxious about buying a doll second market, especially YJ.

Once again,it is only my personal opinion, no offense to anyone

 

Soom has actually re-released many of their MD limiteds without fantasy parts and in normal skin tones and I don't think it impacted the value of the original much if at all. I think skin color and fantasy parts are a big part of that (possibly because I am not a huge fan of Soom's NS color... it is very peach).

As has been stated before, I have a pretty large number of limiteds. In fact, I think I only have one or two /non/ limiteds. But I don't mind a re-release, so long as the makeup, outfit and/or fantasy parts are not the same or they are a different skin color.

For instance, I know lots of people would really love SDC Renee. I know I could sell mine for much more if they don't re-release her, but I don't care because I don't intend to re-sell her. I have overpaid for dolls, and then had them re-released and although of course I then regretted having paid more than I would have, I always remind myself at the /time/ I didn't know they would be re-released and it was worth it to me then, so why am I complaining? Plus, I got all the months or years of love from having them.

I don't really feel like you can look at BJDs exactly like other collectible dolls, where you know exactly what a run is. When you use the pre-order system a run might be 10 dolls or 100.... it just depends. And yet that is my favorite method. The ones where you have to win a lottery just to be able to buy it the first time around make me rather sad. I know they do it to keep things 'special'. I still find it frustrating to not be able to buy that doll you really want, even if you know you want it and have the money and are one of the first to request it. But then, I wouldn't be so sad if so many of them didn't /immediately/ get re-sold for twice the price. If I felt the only people in the lottery were people who really wanted the doll I wouldn't mind so much. But we have to compete with people who are only there for re-sale, and they usually use every trick in the book to increase their chances.

Thusly why I prefer the 'pre-order' method and the occasional re-release doesn't bother me one whit.

 

yes, I own a limited doll

It just doesn't bother me that much. My doll isn't any less special because they release more of her for other people to buy- she's still special unto me. I hope everyone has a chance to snag their dream doll.

If I choose to take a risk and pay five times the price for a doll on the secondary market then that's just the what it is- no more, no less. Every time I've bought off the secondary market I have to make peace with those thoughts before I actually make the purchase. Anything can happen in love, war and the doll market (aka $$$$).

 

It would be kind of a betrayal for everyone who bought the limited doll to just ... restock it again. I agree with the others that it defeats the purpose of limited. I wouldn't mind as much if they used the same mold and styled it completely different though.

 

But a second limited release doesn't mean that the original limited release isn't still "limited". For example, if I own the first LE10 edition of something, and then a second LE100 release comes along later, the doll I own is still limited. In fact, it's still an LE10, it's not LE110. Both releases are limited. Separately. Anything that isn't regular-stock is limited.

Unless the company has specifically said "will never ever be released again"-- which you'll notice they never seem to do-- calling a doll Limited does NOT mean that there's only ever going to be 1 edition. It just means that this current edition is limited, and not regular-stock. They reserve the right to reuse that face again later if they want to.

 

I've owned Limited dolls and personally wouldn't mind if they were re-released under special circumstances, like different outfit, resin, face-up, ect. (Even a re-release of the exact same doll wouldn't bother me, but I can see why people would be against it). I suppose I would just be happy knowing I could share the sculpts I love with more people! c: To me, value is just a number and nothing else. I purchased my dolls because I like them. Whether they are limited or not, wouldn't stop me from bringing them home. ♥

 

The more I try to reply to your post, the more I understand what you mean.

I get the point that limited doesn't necessarily have to mean 'never to be released again', I just think part of buying a limited edition (for example LE10) doll is feeling like you own one out of 10 in the whole world etc, most people like that feeling. And in every business you'll see, limited usually meant they only made a set number of the item and won't restock. That's the impression I got anyway.

Yeah you make a lot of sense though.

 

I understand that whether a doll is re-released by a company or not is up to them and I do appreciate the chance to buy a doll that I initially missed out on. However, it seems to me that if someone were to spend, upwards, of $1,000 for a limited doll they are at least partially paying that amount because they will be one of the few that owns it. Because of that reason I tend to see re-releases as a way for the company to make more money especially since it's not as though every possible option for a doll to be sculpted has been used up.

Why not create a new, beautiful doll rather than re-release the one that people were relying on being special and limited.

 

Thank you, but it's merely how the word Limited works. It made sense long before I got here. ^^ The kicker is, that owner of the LE10 doll *can* still say they own only one of 10 in the world, if that's the feeling they're after. The second limited edition isn't counted as being part of the first one.

Actually in most collecting-businesses I see, "limited" just means that that edition is limited, and people do assume there will be another limited edition of that action-figure/My Little Pony/game card/ceramic plate/Barbie/etc. later. Which is why it seems so silly to non-collectors, when collectors go wild & pay yea bucks for THIS edition of that Pony that had THIS hat, but not THAT same later Pony with a different hat. "But they're the same pony." "No they're not! This one had the original hat and is much rarer!" "Uhh... okay..." =D Which is why, on the eighth day, God had to create pricing-guides.


I actually am one of those people who owns an LE10 that you could later get as a basic custom-system doll (Iplehouse tan Lion).... The non-LE versions of that doll didn't have the same faceup, and looked different for being made of different resin-batches, and don't come with Ye Official Paperwork with the edition name & date, so they were not the same doll at all. An edition is an edition, so I didn't find it cause for freaking out. But.... there are different schools of thought on this issue, so I'm sure some of the other 9 owners felt a bit crestfallen, and I'm sure some of them flew into a rage.

For a company like Volks who doesn't tell you how many dolls are in an edition, the mystery is preserved; I think the lack of numbering takes some of that pressure off owners to feel the most unique. ^^

 

Can I just say that English isn't my native language lol, maybe I just had the wrong impression of the word limited. But yeah. I guess the best restock of LE is one where they change the faceup and clothes etc. Same mold, variation in style - should please most people. I know this whole thread makes sense more or less but to be honest I didn't read all 30 pages hehe

 

(I haven't read the entire thread, admittedly) My short answer is: yes and no.

Yes in that having multiple possibilities to get the doll you want is awesome. And in a lot of instances, as long as the head sculpt is the same it doesn't seem to matter which "edition" of that doll you get. Personally I've always wanted a Dollfie Dream Saber since I saw her, but she was a lotto and at the time I missed the chance, not that I had the money to pay for her anyway. Volks kept coming out with new Sabers, each essentially the same doll (except for one) with slight differences, so I vowed that since I will probably never be able to afford an original saber who's upwards of a couple thousand US dollars now- any other saber will do. You can imagine my delight when volks opened up preorders (NOT a crummy lotto, but an actual preorder) for Saber Extra and Saber Alter v.2. For certain things, I do wish the doll was rereleased though, or at least the doll parts. Particularly soom fantasy parts, which while it's nice they rereleased some sculpts they don't do the fantasy parts with them, usually. And trying to find certain fantasy parts second hand is often pretty darn near impossible for certain old but really popular parts.

At the same time, I do understand why they don't rerelease the parts- because those parts were what made that edition of the doll special. And as said by others, sometimes owning something special makes you feel special. While I'll never jump onto that one rare one-of-a-kind doll with the super awesome special outfit designed by some super famous artist and there's only one in the entire world, I do enjoy owning a few limiteds because they are special. And certain limiteds are worth a lot, not that "worth" means anything to me because as much as I'd like to say they're an investment, I have no plans on actually selling anything that enters my collection. But someone else might.

Something occured to me while I was feelng a tad down since Iplehouse released Real-Skin to all base model JIDs for a little extra, the skin tone that made my Ai (jid I) special prior to that, was that now I can easily get replacement parts for her in case something happens- something I wasn't able to do before that. So in a way rereleasing even the rarest of dolls is a good thing, because a broken part could hurt your value regardless if it got rereleased again or not. In theory anyway. Either way, who wants to be stuck with a broken dolly forever?

I think it also depends on what you want the doll for. The facial sculpt? Sure, any body will do. Perhaps tone doesn't matter. Most rereleases are essentially this, and great for people looking for that perfect sculpt to fit a certain character. Fantasy parts, that particular faceup, that particular outfit - in other words the things that make that limited doll limited and special? It would kinda defeat the purpose of having it limited in the first place if it was mass rereleased again, wouldn't it?

 

I think that if a specific set together (doll makeup clothes etc) is listed as limited, then it should not be released again. Nor should something similar to it be released again. If a company says "limited to 1xx", then that should be it. Preiod. I dont believe there should be a tribute done a few years (or less than that) down the line where the set is again released.

I do think releasing a limited sculpt again is fine, however. But only if the set is different from the previous set it was released as.

 

I agree with you. I have several limited Soom dolls. While Soom just released a special order (aka: pokeSOOM) for the past MDs, I don't mind since I prefer the originals and this wave of re-releases are different enough from the originals (no outfit, eyes, wig, different skin color, different face-up, fantasy parts mash-up, etc.).

 

just had to quote this, I find this too awesome! xDD

I probably answered (but I get lost with what thread and if I just thought about what I would say but didn't say it....)
anyway, as you can see, I almost only own limited dolls! and since I don't own them to be able to brag about their rareness, I really wouldn't mind if they ever were released as basic. I just can't understand people who get mad when this happen. I can understand if you paid 2k second hand and now the doll is available again for 600$. THIS would be very frustrating. but if you bought directly from the company with no intention to sell with sh*tload of profit... what's the big deal? >.> the special snowflake thing never made any sense or importance to me, I find it really silly and I think it is a bad reason to own a doll. the first reason to own a doll should be because you love it, not because it will make you special I think

 

Absolutely not. Do I want half the limited dolls out there? Totally! But if you'll forgive the expression- bringing back limited dolls tends to "screw people over". Yes, there are a lucky few who get the doll, which is wonderful- they have a valuable doll- others want it and dont get it- sad! Absolutely! I want a volks Charlotte- do I want them to reissue her? No way! That would diminish her value! She wouldn't be rare anymore!! If I get her with hard earned money that I slaved over, I want her as nature intended- RARE! Even now I am considering buying a limited bloody Alice from peakswoods- now shes rare, so her price in drastically increased as a full set! If I bought her at an inflated price and then peakswoods reissued her- I would be sick to my stomach! Heck I would probably puke!

Not to mention the people who DO by a limited doll second hand at an inflated price- its not fair to them! They by a doll for perhaps 1,000 dollars? And then its reissued and only costs about 600! Thats four hundred dollars they wasted under the impression that they were getting a RARE limited doll! And thats not the fault of the buyer or the second hand seller, thats the fault of the company who chose to reissue the doll. Is it nice of the company? Oh yes very! No doubt! But in the end it hurts the buyers wallet! Suddenly they dont have a rare limited doll anymore! They have a reissued doll who's value went down the toilet.

If I buy a limited doll- especially at an inflated price under the impression of the company that she was to stay limited- Then I would in fact want her/him to STAY LIMITED!!



KEEP 'EM RARE, KEEP 'EM LIMITED!

 

Sahoma - I do not think that the majority of people who buy limiteds have special snowflake syndrome. If this were the case they'd likely buy one-offs. (Though I'm not denying that there are some people like this). I believe that it is much more the fact that the company has blatantly lied about their product and its availability. You could say that I only own limited dolls as well (if you can even consider a Volks limited anymore), and while I do not own the sets, original face ups, or even wigs, nor do I particularly care when a sculpt is rereleased, I'd still be a bit 'ehh...' if the exact set was released again. Which they have done before.

 

Is this a debate about semantics or the use of terms? Couldn't you say "Limited Release" instead of "Limited Edition" and be done with it?

There's no doubt what's gone on in the recent past seems misleading but I don't know that it is necessarily intentional. I think they want you to keep buying dolls from them and perhaps they will sell more dolls (and make more money) by rereleasing successful dolls than by making everything very exclusive. I can only guess, without specific companies actually issuing statements about their nature of the LEs and releases.

You might say: Limited Edition means Limited Edition. Period. It's always possible something was lost in translation or there are exceptions. I wonder if we'll ever know what they are?

Would it be accurate to sum up: Limited Editions ≠ Limited Releases?

 

A limited doll should be exactly that, other wise whats the point of buying limited dolls?
Espically for the larger companys, this would make the dolls more desireable to collectors.

 

I think a few of the responses to this thread have come from people upset at the re-release of certain dolls at Volks' upcoming Dolpa. It is not Volks' fault that you may have spent over 2k tracking down a limited doll. They are known to rerelease limited dolls and it is your choice whether you spend a lot of money now or wait for a possible rerelease.

Volks don't earn any money from the inflated after-market prices, so from a business point of view, if they can see that demand is high and after-market prices are high, they can see that there is a good chance that if they rerelease the doll themselves they will make more money.

Doll money shouldn't be in the hands of the scalpers, it should be in the hands of the company. I don't think Volks owe anyone anything special to keep the dolls rare and limited - particularly if you didn't buy the doll directly from them. As far as Volks is concerned, you weren't their customer, so they don't even know you may have one of their dolls.

I do think that it would be nicer for each release of a limited to have limited face-up, limited outfit etc..., but if it doesn't, that's up to the company.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about a rerelease of SDC Kurt. I own one, I don't see very many on the boards, so there is a feeling that he is quite rare. His rarity is nice, but it's not why I got him. If Volks rereleased him I think I'd be really happy - I want to get a second Kurt and a female SDC body to make a girlfriend for Rupert. I wouldn't feel worried about modding a limited boy to look a little more feminine if it was a rerelease and not so incredibly rare!